Sign the Petition to

San Angelo, TX Criminal Courts

We the undersigned ask you to drop the charges against Allen Lee Schmidt and Party Ranch. The aforementioned parties are not responsible in the horrible, sad death of Donald Di Pietro.

On March 9, 2013 at approximately 7:30 p.m., Malcom Guy McBurnett was leaving Party Ranch in his 1991 Chevrolet Pickup when his truck stalled in the middle of the southbound lane on a two lane highway. McBurnett ran inside to get help, but did not turn on his warning flashers. Allen Lee Schmidt came outside and used his pickup to try to push McBurnett's pickup out of the road. Witnesses state that 20+ cars saw the incident and drove around (using the opposite traffic lane) but no one stopped to help. Suddenly, McBurnett applied his brakes and did not allow Schmidt to push his vehicle any further. When he did this, Donald Di Pietro was driving down the same highway on his 2012 Victory motorcycle, although all of the other drivers on the road that evening saw the stalled vehicle, Di Pietro did not and was unable to stop in time causing him to collide head on with the passenger side of McBurnett's pick up.

Party Ranch has video surveillance throughout the establishment and in the parking lot, and the footage shows Schmidt assisting McBurnett and also shows McBurnett sneaking off to a blind spot. Staff that night and footage shows that McBurnett showed no signs of being intoxicated, however witnesses do suspect that he was a professional alcoholic (meaning he would not show signs of intoxication until he was far past the legal limit) and was sneaking liquor out of a bottle when he was hiding in the blind spots which were out of the line of sight of Party Ranch staff.

Party Ranch is the only police friendly establishment in San Angelo, Texas. They do not serve minors and I have personally seen them confiscate keys, call cabs and stop serving customers when they are intoxicated. Party Ranch is on an old country road and has petitioned the city numerous times to reduce the speed limit on the road and also to have street lights installed, which never happened.

Allen Lee Schmidt is a hardworking man, a good friend and only came to assist McBurnett. He held no ill will and only acted with the notion of preventing harm. He is not a bad man and is not responsible for what happened that night. He has stated again and again that he will never forget the image of the crash for the rest of his life, and only wishes that he could have done more to prevent it.

The city of San Angelo has charged the owner of Party Ranch and Allen Lee Schmidt with Criminally Negligent Homicide even though evidence shows they are not responsible for Donald Di Pietro's death in any way. Party Ranch has been fined and the city is trying to shut them down for over serving customers (which did not happen) and the city police have been harassing Party Ranch patrons since the night of this horrible accident.

We ask that you stop this witch hunt and drop the charges against Party Ranch and Allen Lee Schmidt. Malcom McBurnett should be prosecuted for the death of Donald Di Pietro, not the people who tried to prevent this incident.

Please review the articles below. They are all contradictory and none of them state Allen Lee Schmidt or Party Ranch as responsible parties.

How this will help

After assisting a man who's truck stalled in the middle of the road and sadly, a motorcyclist hit that truck and died, Allen Lee Schmidt and Party Ranch are being charged with Criminally Negligent Homicide. The man who was driving the truck is being charged with Intoxicated Manslaughter while good men are being persecuted because the city needs to cover up their mistakes. Please sign the petition to help tell the San Angelo Police Department and their Courts that we will not stand for half-hearted justice, we wont stand for police harassment, and we will not allow innocent men to be persecuted.

Allen Lee Schmidt and the staff at Party Ranch are good people and do not deserve to be treated like killers.